There are no XC races for people not in high school in my area. In my short time of running (2 years), there was one 5k race on a high school XC course for a fundraiser. There are generally 4 open track meets in the area, all in June. There are about 6 running events (100, 200, 400, 800, mile, 3200). There is also 1 5000m track race each year, added just last year.
Is this common across the rest of the country? Obviously the elites are running these, but where? Roads are king here.
All comers track meets seem more common than cross country.
You could start a series?
Where are you? In our area, there cross country series available on just about every night of the week over the summer. (Connecticut)
Van Cortlandt Park.
NYRR offers open XC races at Van Cortlandt in the fall + Van Cortlandt track club has open Thursday night XC races at Van Cortlandt during the summer.
NYRR has done all-comers track meets at Icahn in the summer and the Armory in the winter for a number of years. NYC-area running clubs are also putting on a steadily growing number of small, low-key all-comers meets at the various area outdoor tracks.
Where do you live? In my area there is a 12 race XC series in the fall every year.
Yeah open xc races are very rare for some reason, and college xc races usually don't allow individuals, probably because cross country is seen as more of a team sport
Your best bet is to go on direathletics once the college xc season starts and look for races in your area that allow club or unattached runners. I'm sure you'll be able to find a couple. If you're in the NJ/Eastern PA the Paul Short Invitational at Lehigh University is a good option.
As for track races, there are tons of them that allow open runners, at least in my area. This year I've done a track race almost every weekend since late March.
Asheville, NC has an open xc race series in the summer and fall. There are races every couple weeks and though small, some of them are actually quite competitive. Times may seem slow from previous years, but once you see the courses and factor in that they were run in the heat, you'll know why. Most other major cities have a handful of open all comers xc races at some point during the year.
In Massachusetts, there are a few x country races each year, and an occasional 1 mile road race, but for "normal" adults, there are no real opportunities to run track meets. Meanwhile, there are literally hundreds of 5ks each year in Massachusetts.
There are the BU mini-meets, where I finished in the bottom 10% of the field running a 6:25 mile, barely edging out some older men escorting their 8ish yr old children. Granted I was not in top shape, but the vast majority of the women were running in the 5:00 - 5:30 range for a mile. The 3000 meter race which I luckily did not enter was worse; a girl ran a 3000 meters in about 13 minutes and received pity applause.
Also there are twilight meets which I believe the vast majority of the women in the 800 meters were running under 2:20 .
There are a couple of other high schools that hold a short series of track meets attended almost exclusively by children even though they were technically open to the public.
It does seem very strange to me. In high school, my track team was a lot larger than my cross country team, our longest track event was 2 miles, and the shorter events were a lot more popular.
With 6 million residents, there seems like there should be a LOT more track meets in Massachusetts.
I'm in NE TN. The Asheville option is pretty close. Nashville is a long haul from here.
There are many more opportunities in MA than the above poster has mentioned. There are multiple low key XC series' and the USATF XC Grand Prix, as well as a few weekly outdoor track meets and the USATF Mini-Meets.
Many if not all of these event are at the USATF-NE website (and no I don't work for USATF)
Move to the UK. Lots of mud, and we know what to do with it. Races almost every weekend, all over the country, guest runners welcome in pretty much all of them.